(LifeSiteNews) — Four years after declaring bankruptcy, the Diocese of Buffalo, New York announced this month this it is closing nearly 80 churches and “worship sites” as part of a broader restructuring plan called “Road to Renewal.”
In a statement issued September 10, Bishop Michael Fisher blamed a lack of attendance, a drop in vocations, the growth of secularism and past priestly sexual abuse for the decision, which some faithful say “blindsided” them.
“The Diocese of Buffalo, like dioceses across our nation and around the world, has had to deal with some harsh realities,” Fisher explained. “This is a turning point in the history and life of this diocese.”
The move will result in the current 160 parishes and 36 secondary worship sites being reduced to 79 parishes and 39 secondary worship sites. Thirteen churches also will be put on a “watch list” as the plan will be implemented over the next nine months.
The Diocese of Buffalo, which comprises eight counties in western New York, has not been without controversy in recent years. In 2022, a historic, 164-year-old church in the diocese was sold to a Muslim group for use as a mosque for $250,000 after refusing proposals to reuse it as a church. The sale was criticized by laity for allegedly being in violation of the 1983 Code of Canon Law.
St. Gerard’s Roman Catholic Church was similarly sold in 2017 and converted to a mosque.
The diocese is also in the process of selling its former seminary in Aurora for $3.8 million to a Korean-based group called World Mission Society Church of God.
Father Bryan Zielenieski, who spearheaded the Renewal initiative, told local media that financial difficulties prompted the plan, which went through 26 revisions before being approved.
“We’re going to be doing this whether there was Chapter 11 or there was not. What Chapter 11 has done — the only influence this has — it’s kind of sped things up a little,” he said.richard
Fisher took over the diocese in 2021 after Bishop Richard J. Malone resigned in disgrace two years earlier amid allegations of covering up sexual abuse of seminarians and for having put a priest who was caught consuming homosexual pornography twice back into ministry.
Siobhan O’Connor, Malone’s former secretary, helped take him down after she blew the whistle on his corrupt behavior on CBS’s “60 Minutes” program in 2019.
Syracuse-based journalist Geoff Herbet has reported that the diocese is still paying out a $100 million settlement for nearly 900 cases of past child sex abuse.